Despite losing nine in a row to NAVI before the grand final of BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024, G2 ended the day as worthy winners thanks to an impressive showing in the Forum Copenhagen.
A day which saw malbsMd win his first tier one trophy and Snax his first since 2018, it's one we'll all remember for a long time as it was also the final ever BLAST Premier Fall Final.
After their win, we sat down with NiKo to discuss how they prepared for the match, the confidence the trophy will give them ahead of the Major, and whether or not the desks are safe now that he's a happy champion.
Best of fives can be long and you also had a long day yesterday, was there any fatigue coming into today?
Yeah, definitely. I could feel it on Mirage, after the map I could feel that I wasn't as sharp as I was yesterday and for the first two maps. I just tried to keep my head cool and help the team with good comms and showing initiative.
As you say, best of fives can be long and we haven't played one in a while, so I'm happy that we managed to come back and close it out on Inferno after having a huge lead on Mirage.
That was your first win over NAVI after losing the previous nine match ups, did you prepare any differently?
I think the reason why we won is because we didn't prepare that much. We've played them so much in the last couple of weeks and months that we know everything that they do.
I think our heads were just in a better place than the last couple of times we played them, I think our team grew a lot after beating Vitality and we started believing more in ourselves.
There wasn't much difference in the game, but I just think that we stepped up as a team a lot and it's nice to see.
How much extra confidence do you get winning an event this close to the Major?
It's super nice, we created this lineup in order to lift trophies and we've done so pretty fast and had stable results ever since the lineup was formed. We're looking better and better and hopefully keep improving, so we'll see how the season plays out.
Are the tables safe now? How's your hand feeling today?
[laughs] My hand is fine, I think. I couldn't really feel any difficulties playing and I tried to control my emotions today, I don't think what I did paints a good picture and I think that people understood it, but people shouldn't try to break tables. It's not a good thing and not something that I want people to remember, it's not a thing a good role model should do.
Kids, don't break tables and keep your heads cool.
Snax and TaZ often receive criticism online, what are they bringing to the table to elevate the team?
TaZ has been with us for almost a year now and we've lifted two trophies with two different lineups.
He keeps this team together, you know? He keeps us functioning and I think it's a big relief to him to see that we're working well and having good results as well because there were some criticisms at the start of the season so I'm super proud of him and he's a big part of our success, he helped us a lot today to stay calm and made sure that we were composed.
When it comes to Snax, I think he's a great IGL and I think he can just get better at it. The thing I like about him is that he's very calm, it doesn't matter what is happening in the game or what the result is, he's always calm so I'm super proud of him and I'm sure this trophy will mean a lot to him in terms of his calling.
I think he'll have more confidence in himself, he's started playing better individually as well which is super important for us, so I'll say the future is looking bright.
Two trophies this year now, where do you think you sit in terms of the best teams in 2024?
We're not the best, but if we lift a couple more trophies before the end of the season then maybe we can become the best. I think NAVI is clearly ahead of everyone right now, Vitality might be second, but I don't know.
We need to continue the grind and lift some more trophies in order to contend for the number one spot.
Can you go back-to-back and win World Final?
Can we go back-to-back in Singapore? I can say that we'll do our best, I just hope that we play as calm CS as we did here and that we are confident.
I'm just looking forward to going there, it's a cool location and I've never been there. The event is looking promising so we'll do our best to lift another trophy.
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